White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about domestic violence, saying that domestic violence crimes are not crimes but “made-up” statistics to undermine his work.

Leavitt was asked, “what crimes was the president referring to?” when Trump said: “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see?”

She responded that the President “wasn’t referring to crimes.”

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“That’s exactly the point he was making,” she continued, “but the president is saying, and that is that these crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.”

“I think the president has every reason to believe that, given the efforts of many reporters in this room, who actively seek to undermine the president and what he’s doing in our nation’s capital,” Leavitt claimed.

“We all know that deep inside, you all agree with this,” she added, apparently referring to federal troops occupying Washington, D.C. “because you all live here, and I’m sure you are very grateful for the administration’s efforts to make the city, which we all reside in, much safer for ourselves and our families.”

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Trump’s full remarks included this statement:

“Things that take place in the home, they call crime, you know, they’ll do anything they can to find something,” he said on Monday at a meeting of his Religious Liberty Commission. “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see?”

Calling Trump’s comment “alarming,” HuffPost on Tuesday reported that Trump was “suggesting that officials in the city were unfairly manipulating crime statistics to make him look bad.”

On Monday, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law and MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst, responded to the President’s comment:

“Domestic abuse is a crime. Marital assault and marital rape are both criminal conduct and anyone who commits them should be prosecuted. Full stop.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Leavitt claims Trump “wasn’t referring to crimes” in his bizarre comments about domestic violence yesterday 🤔 pic.twitter.com/rKwQiLk9ui

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 9, 2025

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is under fire after urging Democrats to “yield” to President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy federal troops to major U.S. cities — a move he says is needed to fight crime, but that critics are condemning as an occupation or even an invasion.

“We need to confirm that the American people that they do not need to fear for their lives when they drive to the grocery store, or they pick up their son or daughter from school,” the Republican Speaker said at a press conference on Tuesday (video below).

“This is common sense, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand how the Democrats think this is some sort of winning political message,” he added, referring to opposition to deploying federal troops into cities as Trump did to Washington, D.C.

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“Yield, man,” Johnson exclaimed. “Let the troops come into your city and show how crime can be reduced.”

He insisted seeing soldiers on U.S. streets is “a morale boost for the country,” “safe,” and “right for everybody involved.”

But legal experts and critics blasted Johnson.

“Is Speaker Johnson unfamiliar with why we mounted a revolution against Britain?” asked Joy Powers, a radio host and producer for Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s NPR affiliate WUWM.

“Shreveport, which Johnson represents, has a total crime rate 144% higher than national average and 62% higher than Louisiana average,” wrote journalist Julie Roginsky. “Its violent crime rate is 138% higher than the national rate and 44% above Louisiana’s. Why isn’t the military invading Johnson’s district?”

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick remarked: “Speaking entirely as a citizen of this country — this isn’t about politics! It’s about the fundamental nature of our country and our system of government. For 250 years we agreed that the military should NOT be deployed domestically to do the job of civilian law enforcement!”

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Journalist Andrew Ryvkin wrote: “I was ten when we came to this country. We settled in Boston. I learned that in the 1700s, my newfound hometown wasn’t one to ‘yield, man’ and let hostile troops come into the city. It won’t be one to do so today, either. And I hope other cities will follow suit.”

“Bananas,” commented attorney Mark Ramos. “The Republican ethos was, at its core, one of conservative, limited domestic gov’t, and now a Republican Speaker is cheerleading a ‘Republican’ president forcing U.S. military into states for domestic law-enforcement (and for show!). Reagan would be as aghast as we are.”

Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer pointed to a CBS News/YouGov poll that shows a strong majority of Americans oppose having National Guard troops deployed to their “local area.”

See that social media post and the video below or at this link.

The brains of these Republican yahoos are so pickled by Fox News agitprop that they have no idea what the rest of the country actually thinks. https://t.co/vMlEiVbqCO pic.twitter.com/t7y3HDlNVf

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) September 9, 2025

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At a meeting of his Religious Liberty Commission at Washington, D.C.’s Museum of the Bible, President Donald Trump deepened concerns over the separation of church and state, while he encouraged prayer in public schools, unveiled a new initiative urging Americans to gather in groups of at least ten to pray ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary, and, critics said, appeared to downplay domestic abuse.

“To have a great nation, you have to have religion — I believe that so strongly,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post. “There has to be something after we go through all of this, and that something is God.”

The Post declared it was Trump’s “exhortation to have the country unite in prayer” that seemed “most striking.”

Tying into Trump’s urging for groups of Americans to join in prayer is a new White House post, “America Prays: An Invitation to Prayer & Rededication of the United States as One Nation Under God.”

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Among the recommended ideas for prayer was this: “Organize the time of prayer by different subjects, such as prayer for government leaders, cultural renewal, protection of freedom, families, individuals, etc.”

David Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and a professor at Georgetown Law, told the Post that the initiative “raises serious constitutional questions” and “is directly in violation of, at a minimum, the spirit of the establishment clause.”

The Post noted that the “establishment clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from passing a law ‘respecting an establishment of religion,’ a nonspecific phrase that has generated decades of legal debate.”

Cole also warned that the Trump administration’s call for prayer appeared to focus specifically on Christian prayer.

“What does this say to a Muslim, a Hindu, a Jew, an agnostic?” Cole posited. “It tells them they are outsiders.”

Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister with PhD in political communication, wrote: “The ‘America Prays’ initiative is the government teaming up with #ChristianNationalist groups for ‘rededication’ of US as ‘one nation under God.’ Of course, if it’s about celebrating founding era, got to leave ‘under God’ out of it.”

Also drawing backlash was Trump’s apparent encouragement of prayer in public schools, at the meeting that was focused on “Religious Liberty in Public Education.”

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“For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools, today’s students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are even punished for their religious beliefs and very, very strongly punished, it’s ridiculous,” the President said. “I’m pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation responded.

“Students have always had the right to pray in public schools,” they wrote. “What Trump is pushing isn’t about protecting prayer — it’s about giving officials a green light to impose Christianity on everyone else. That’s unconstitutional coercion, not freedom.”

USA Today noted that “Students have long had the right to pray in public schools as individuals.” The paper also reported that Americans United for Separation of Church and State President Rachel Laser  “said the commission hearing was ‘more like a church service’ and promoted the ‘lie that America is a Christian nation and that religion is under attack.'”

The President’s remarks on domestic violence also drew backlash.

“Things that take place in the home, they call crime, you know, they’ll do anything they can to find something,” he told the Religious Liberty Commission (video below). “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see?”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded, saying: “My mother’s childhood was torn apart by domestic violence. I’ve held survivors’ hands as they relived their darkest moments. For the President to treat that trauma like a joke is despicable.”

Professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote: “Domestic abuse is a crime. Marital assault and marital rape are both criminal conduct and anyone who commits them should be prosecuted. Full stop.”

Professor of economics Justin Wolfers added, “Let me say what the President won’t: Domestic violence is not okay. It’s immoral, illegal and abusive, and no real man is okay would do it, approve of it, or minimize it.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump minimizes domestic abuse during a talk at the Museum of the Bible: “Things that take place in the home, they call crime … If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime, see?” pic.twitter.com/fDbyMovsMP

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 8, 2025

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